In 1967, Jean Dubuffet donated part of his personal collection to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, comprising especially graphic works, as well as 21 paintings and 7 sculptures made between 1942 and 1967. This exceptional donation by a living artist to a museum which is not, in theory, dedicated to paintings, was due to the friendship of Jean Dubuffet and the museum’s director at the time, François Mathey.
This collection higlights the protean nature of his work: he is a draughtsman, a painter, a sculptor, a writer and a director.
It includes an orderly chronological selection of the work he created after closing his wine business.
After a series of portraits, Dubuffet developed many experiments echoing materials and textures. From the 1960s onwards, he abandoned this austere palette for bright colours evoking the movement of urban life and then he evolved towards a series of automatic writing.